An Operation in the Glitch
by Catherine Spark
Summary: This is a re-posting.  I am relavitely new to Tin Man, but I love it so, so much!  Especially Glitch, who in this one-shot is about to go for his operation.  I know it's been done before, but hopefully I can put something new in.


"To Ambrose: Good luck, we'll be waiting! Love from DG, Raw and Cain." The names were signed by the people themselves – DG's decorated with a smiley face, Raw's name written in large, slightly wobbly letters and Cain's in small, tight writing. Ambrose looked up at the three of them standing round his bed and smiled shyly, before holding out his arms to DG for a hug. "It'll be fine," she said, and he could hear the catch in her voice.

"Fine, yeah," he echoed, in a bad imitation of confidence. "Fine, yeah. Fine – "

"Glitching…" they chorused, and he grinned and dropped his gaze.

"No more of that after today," he remarked with a small chuckle. It should be easier than the removal – just unzip his head and pop the missing cerebral hemisphere back into place, but for some reason he seemed unable to relax. "Stay cool," said Cain, laying a hand on Ambrose's shoulder briefly in a display of solidarity. Ambrose saw the affection in his eyes as he turned away. "Raw see operation go well," whispered raw, but he didn't sound as happy as Ambrose felt he should be. This worried him.

"Um, Raw?"

"Uh-huh?"

"Is there something wrong?"

"Not wrong…Ambrose be very brainy. Raw just…"

"Just what?"

"Nothing." And he would say nothing else. Once he had gone only DG remained in the room with him. She got up to leave. He took a deep breath and voiced a doubt that he realised he'd been harbouring for a long time, but not acknowledging.

"DG…am I doing the right thing here?"

A doctor came into the room. "Ready?" Glitch motioned to give them some time. "Two minutes," the doctor told them, and left again. DG sat down on the bed and took a minute to think about the question. When she answered, her words were very carefully chosen. "If it's what you want then yes."

"Yeah…but _is _it what I want?" DG looked him in the eyes and saw vulnerability and indecision burning there. "Well," she said in a thoughtful tone, feeling a lump in her throat which she fought back down with difficulty, "I don't know how the others feel, but I love you as you are with half a brain, glitching 'n' all. But if not having it all makes you miserable…" She seemed to gather her thoughts again. "The thing is," she blurted out at length, almost as much to herself as to him, "Ambrose _is _Glitch, just with extras. Right?"

"Yeah, that's just it," he sighed. "Will having the extras again be a good thing? I mean, before my noggin was sliced in half all I did was get scared and invent useless stuff."

"You invented the machine that destroyed the witch and saved my sister, and you call it useless?"

"I almost destroyed the O.Z."

"But instead you saved it."

"Yeah. I guess I did." A tiny smile played on his lips, before it was replaced by anxiety again. "But don't you see, now that makes it even harder! If I don't have my brain I can't be clever. But if I do I might invent things that are useless or dangerous or both." His eyes flicked back and forth in anxiety, and then away in thought. The doctor looked into the room again, tapped his watch at DG and left. "Maybe…" Glitch mused, "…Maybe I don't _have _to get my brain back. It could be, sort of, back up. You know what I mean? I can use it for if we need to invent things. And – and if I need it I can ask Raw to help me access it, right?"

"Sounds…workable." DG's eyes were twinkling at him.

"Yeah! And if anything else happens to my noggin they can put it back in!"

"That's true!" she was positively beaming now.

"You're the best, DG!"

"So are you…Glitch!" The door opened, and the doctor came back into the room. "If we're going to do this it needs to be now," he informed them.

"That was one fast operation," Cain commented drily, as Glitch came out from the operating room. But it didn't take long for him to register the fact that the wide-eyed innocence, shy smile and habitually diffident air had not vanished, as it had when Raw had connected him to the rest of his brain. "There were complications," Glitch explained. His face went blank for a moment. "There were complications," he repeated. "There were – "

Cain clapped his hands suddenly, which had the effect of cutting the speech loop. "You didn't go through with it, did you?" he said. Glitch shook his head.

The effect of this revelation was quite dramatic. Cain let out a breath he hadn't realised he'd been holding and Raw relaxed visibly, breaking into a wide, rare grin.

"Well," said Cain, "I'm glad for one. I need someone to check my 'bitter cynicism'."

"And Raw see Ambrose – "

" – Glitch – "

" – Glitch…doing great things even without rest of brain."

"And I," said DG, "Can't imagine you any other way." Glitch looked overwhelmed. "He's keeping the other half for back-up," she continued to the others, and laid a hand on Glitch's chest, "But all that he needs is right here."


End file.
